| (19) |
 |
|
(11) |
EP 0 921 656 A3 |
| (12) |
EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
| (88) |
Date of publication A3: |
|
02.01.2002 Bulletin 2002/01 |
| (43) |
Date of publication A2: |
|
09.06.1999 Bulletin 1999/23 |
| (22) |
Date of filing: 05.10.1998 |
|
|
| (84) |
Designated Contracting States: |
|
AT BE CH CY DE DK ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LI LU MC NL PT SE |
|
Designated Extension States: |
|
AL LT LV MK RO SI |
| (30) |
Priority: |
06.10.1997 US 944911
|
| (71) |
Applicant: CONCORD COMMUNICATIONS, INC. |
|
Marlboro, MA 01752 (US) |
|
| (72) |
Inventors: |
|
- Booman, Gordon A.
Berlin, Massachusetts 01549 (US)
- Diebboll, Robert S.
Lincoln, Massachusetts 01773 (US)
- Engel, Ferdinand
Northboro, Massachusetts 01532 (US)
- Hamlin, Arthur P.
Stow, Massachusetts 01775 (US)
- McKellar, Stephen F.
Millford, Massachusetts 01757 (US)
|
| (74) |
Representative: Hackney, Nigel John et al |
|
Mewburn Ellis, York House, 23 Kingsway
London WC2B 6HP
London WC2B 6HP (GB) |
|
| |
|
| (54) |
Generating reports using distributed workstations |
(57) The invention features methods of, and systems for generating a report that depends
on data stored in a plurality of remote workstations. The methods and systems involve
at least some of the following steps: sending a request from a master workstation
to the remote workstations specifying a group name and a named function; identifying
data stored within each of the remote workstations belonging to a group specified
by the group name; operating on the identified data within each of the remote workstations
according to an algorithm specified by the named function to generate an output for
each remote workstation; returning the output from each remote workstation to the
master workstation; and consolidating the outputs at the master workstations to generate
the report.